Nowhere Rising

Adventure Log 1

Turtles and Oozes

4

MAY/16

Arcticias first landed in Nowhere in deep, clear water, where he was able to deftly pull himself out of the water onto a floating carcass of some unidentifiable dead behemoth. Before he had a chance to search for a way home, something came crawling out of the water towards him. As it gradually formed into a mirror image of himself, with his extensive knowledge he realized that what he was facing was a mimic. With quick thinking he scrambled away from it, but he could not work his magic in the new world to overcome its defenses.

Just in time a bolt sizzling with energy pierced it from far ahead, and he finished it off with a decisive stroke of his sword. Thinking it may be useful later, he collected the dust from its corpse in his spell component pouch.

His rescuers arrived in an airboat powered by a mysterious engine belching steam. One was an exotic elf with clockwork limbs and strange ringed eyes who introduced herself as Alzura, the other a man made entirely of clockwork and metal, armed with a clockwork-like crossbow. Despite any fears he may have felt, Arcticias felt strongly inclined to trust these strangers.

Meanwhile, Lux the Rogue found himself waking up staring up to the face of a huge turtle — its massive, beak-like jaws open as if to eat his face. With fear-inspired speed he rolled away from its jaws, to see it was actually defending himself from a trio of giant crabs. With the turtle’s help he (more or less) deftly dispatched the crabs, and found a note on the turtle bidding him not to leave the beach.

When Alzura and companions arrived to pick him up, she found him attempting to strap the turtle to his backpack. She promptly gave him a scroll of Charm Animal and bid him use that.

A third companion was rescued, a woman by the name of Lora whose features were covered in fine feathers. When Lux inquired about her past, she volunteered that she had been eradicated for saving a baby fiendling from her own order, championing the babe’s innocence.

While accompanying their rescuers, Arcticias asked Alzura why his magic wasn’t working, and was instructed to contact Korvin Rhyst, a high-level member of the Rangers guild. Lux got some pointers from the surprisingly animate Karthax on how to care for turtles.

After an oddly uneasy meeting between their rescuers, the survivors were ushered to abandoned underground cavern and told they would return soon. They soon found themselves drawn to a dark room full of creatures Arcticias identified as an ooze, which proved invulnerable to their weapons. Lux had an inspired idea to use Lora’s shield to squish the things flat, and managed to convince her that this was a good idea. After many attempts to squish it, eventually they succeeded and came away with only a mild amount of acid-eroded flesh. After this ordeal, they found on the corpse some silver pieces, a masterwork bastard sword, and an intricately carved magical box that smelled distinctly of oozes.

After this ordeal, the group locked the door behind them to take a brief respite.